UPDATE MARCH 10: I don’t know if this is some kind of record, but a week after Bruce Springsteen played to 80,000 fans across two nights in Auckland, he has no less than seven albums in the New Zealand top 40. What’s more, he has three in the top 10 and five in the top…
Tag: Concerts
Bruce Springsteen Covers The Bee Gees At His Epic Brisbane Concert
This is why I love Bruce Springsteen. Last night in Brisbane he played for more than three hours*, performed an entire classic album mid-set and opened with a cover of the Bee Gees. Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce! Can’t wait for Saturday night in Auckland. In the meantime, here’s his Stax-like cover of Stayin’ Alive – chosen for the…
Alicia Keys Concert Review Vector Arena, Auckland – Plus 2 Of Her Songs Bacharach Would Be Proud Of
Alicia Keys. I tweeted last night that five years ago Alicia Keys at Vector Arena rocketed into my all-time top 10 concerts and that there was no pressure on Alicia as a result. When she was nearly 30 minutes late taking the stage, rumours* started circulating that due to my tweet she was feeling overwhelmed…
When Alicia Keys Turned Vector Arena Into The Apollo Theatre
Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is returning to New Zealand for the first time in five years and I would still rate that December 2008 concert as one of the top 10 I’ve been to. Auckland’s Vector Arena felt like the Apollo Theatre that night as Keys delivered a show looser, rowdier and more gospel sounding…
Bobby Womack Live In Auckland – His Most Monumental Song
Bobby Womack. Things have been a bit of whirlwind lately and – forgive me Bobby – but I somehow forgot that soul great Bobby Womack was playing in Auckland tonight. Realising my error just before show time, not surprisingly I missed out on tickets to the man who once played guitar in Sam Cooke’s backing…
Paul Simon Concert Review, Auckland 2013 – The Michael Jackson Song He May’ve Inspired
Paul Simon. Dare I say it, last night’s Paul Simon Vector Arena concert in Auckland was even better than Simon and Garfunkel’s show at the same venue in 2009. That concert was more rooted in glorious nostalgia, never more emblematic than when the lights silhouetted the two “old friends” and despite it being 40 years…
Paul Simon Live In Auckland Tonight – His Farewell Song To Art Garfunkel
My all-time favourite lyricist is in town tonight and I can’t wait. About 10 years ago I saw Art Garfunkel solo, in 2009 I saw Simon and Garfunkel together but tonight will be the first time I’ve ever seen a solo Paul Simon show. I say favourite lyricist because I don’t know of any other…
Backstage With Bee Gee Barry Gibb At The Mission Estate Concert
The Two went on tour this past weekend and despite inept road-signs, several u-turns, a missing map-book and an embarrassing absence of modern phone-internet technology, we made it to Napier and back to Auckland in one piece. In the process Pam Corkery and I also had the most welcoming, humbling, human and enthralling backstage…
Barry Gibb Mythology Tour Concert Review – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Barry Gibb at Rod Laver Arena, February 12. Because one Barry Gibb concert was never going to be enough, I decided to jump across to Melbourne for a whirlwind couple of nights to see the second most successful songwriter in music history* play Rod Laver Arena just 11 nights before he’ll be here in New…
Hall & Oates – New Zealand Concert Review & Final H&O Song Of The Day
Trying to explain a mission through the vines to get backstage, our coincidental following of what we thought was Hall & Oates’ van almost out to West Auckland, accidentally taking Icehouse lead singer Iva Davies chair so he and has wife had to share and John Oates pointing out that if you are signing your autograph to…
Why People Convince Themselves Bob Dylan Is Good In Concert
They are the two worst concerts I’ve ever been to. And that’s OK, I am still a Bob Dylan fan. I can also admit the 70th birthday of one of the top 10 greatest songwriters of all time is probably not the best occasion to bemoan a compulsion to live bastardising of back-catalogue. However…. It’s…
Review Of Maroon 5 At Sydney’s Acer Arena
Maroon 5. According to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, I am one of the smartest men currently residing in Sydney. In front of a three-quarters full Acer Arena last night, Levine took a moment out from his cocky-rockstar-ladies-man schtick to reveal some rarely seen self-deprecation. Joking there were 17 guys to the 4000 girls in…